Reading the Lightning Thief
by Sassylou
Summary: I know it's been done before, but here's my version of the characters reading the first book. Except, this is also about Percy and Annabeth's four children reading all about their dad's adventures. They'll learn things about him that they never knew.
1. Chapter 1

_**So, my author's notes will be in italics at the top or bottom of the chapter. Sorry that this one is so long, but it's kind of necessary to set up the story. Anything that's bolded is Rick Riordan's work. I do not claim his brilliance.**_

_**This is my newest fanfiction. Before I start the actually story, I'll let you guys know a little bit about the characters. Percy and Annabeth are married now (and have been since they were about 19; they decided to get married that young since they know that their lives are always going to be dangerous). I think I might write another fanfiction with little one-shots about their life together – just scenes highlighting some of the important events. Or cute events. If I do, it will be with the same characters (kids, etc.) as are in this story. I haven't decided yet if I want to do that. **_

_**When they were 21, they had a daughter, Korinna Jackson (by the way, all the names of the kids are Greek). She has black hair and gray eyes. Like Percy, she's impulsive and fierce. She inherited some of his water abilities. She's not as strong as Percy is, but she can manipulate salt water to a certain extent and she can understand horses and pegasi. All of their children are slightly ADHD and, but Kori has the most intense case of ADHD. She's about as bad as Leo Valdez (read The Heroes of Olympus books, if you haven't already. There will be some comments and stuff that might give things away in that series. It's sort of a spin-off of Percy Jackson, but with Percy still in it. The first in the series is called The Lost Hero. They were amazing.) **_

_**Three years later, they had a set of twins, Chrysanthros and Callidora. They both have dark blond hair and sea green eyes. Chrys is usually quiet, but he can sometimes be a brat (like Percy) and definitely inherited Annabeth's wisdom (or Athena's, however you want to look at it). He can speak to horses and pegasi as well, so can Cally. Cally is extremely smart, just like her twin. She and Chrys get along really well most of the time, but there are times where they fight like crazy. **_

_**And then, about six years after them came Alexander Jackson. At that point, Percy and Annabeth hadn't been planning to have any more kids, but they got Alex. He looks almost exactly like Percy, minus the gray streak in Percy's hair. He's very cunning, but he is also mischievous. He loves to pull pranks, and he gets away with it often since he's so smart. He can sometimes manipulate salt water.**_

_**All of their kids are legacies (as explained in The Son of Neptune – the sequel to The Lost Hero) and so they do have some abilities. **_

_**The story will be written in Kori's point of view, at least for now. I might decide to change that later on, though I doubt it because I'm really liking her thoughts. And it's starting when she's 16, Chrys and Cally are 13, and Alex is 7.**_

_**This fanfiction might take me a while to update each chapter, just because I'm not simply writing my own story and I'm working and going to college full-time. I have to write the actual book done by Rick Riordan, and then add my own stuff. So I'm sorry if it doesn't go quickly. I'll try, but I really can't make any promises.**_

I looked around before sneaking into my parents' room. I was _so_ dead if they caught me in here. Dad I could totally handle. If I gave him enough blue candy, he'd forget he ever saw me. But Mom? I shuddered. She was _scary_ when she was mad.

But I really needed my cell phone back. I know, I know. I shouldn't use a cell phone. Being the daughter of two demigods – one of whom was the son of _Poseidon_ – monsters were _really_ attracted to my scent. Sure, my powers weren't as strong as my dad's. But that didn't seem to matter to monsters. It was why we lived in the little town that Camp Half-Blood had recently built inside its borders. Dad suggested it after he got back from his trip to Camp Jupiter (I still don't know what that was all about). It had taken him a while to convince Chiron, but a small city was finally built. I even went to school there. Dad taught lessons in swordplay at the camp itself. But my best friend – Alyssa Hunt, a daughter of Apollo – was supposed to be texting me about her kinda sorta date with one of the sons of Ares. She lived just around the corner of Half-Blood Hill.

Downstairs, I could hear Dad talking to someone. I couldn't hear the other person as well, so he had to have been using an Iris-message to talk to them. It was probably my uncle Tyson.

Aha! My cell phone. Seriously, Dad needs to think of a better hiding spot than his underwear drawer. I have two brothers. I am not afraid to look through his clean underwear. Now, if _Mom_ had been the one to take it, I never would have found it.

I snatched it up and was about to leave when I saw something else in the drawer, way in the back. It was a stack of books. What caught my interest about them – besides their weird hiding place – was the fact that my dad's name was on the side. I picked up the one on top.

"'Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Book One. The Lightning Thief,'" I read. Unlike my parents, none of us kids inherited dyslexia, except Alex. We all got at least some ADHD, though.

I stared at the book in my hands. "No way." I knew that my parents – especially my dad – were a big deal. Something about saving the gods (possibly twice), but nobody would ever tell me the details. There were so many things that I'd always wondered about. How did he save Olympus? Why did he go to the Roman camp?

"What are you doing in Mom and Dad's room, Kori?" a voice said, startling me.

I spun around, hiding the book behind my back. My younger brother, Chrysanthros – Chrys for short, he hates his full name, not that I could blame him – stood in the doorway. He was only thirteen, but he and his twin, Callidora, had inherited Mom's smarts. So did Alexander. I was the only one that fell into Dad's "Seaweed Brain" category.

"Nothing."

He arched a dark blond eyebrow. "I'm not stupid, Korinna. What do you have behind your back?"

I sighed. "Okay. It's a book. I think it's about Dad."

"No way." He held out his hand. I gave it to him. He opened it to the first page, and whistled. "Kori, this isn't just about Dad. He _wrote_ it."

"It says that the author is Rick Riordan."

He rolled his eyes. "It's a pen name. It has to be. The first chapter is titled 'I accidentally vaporize my pre-algebra teacher.' Who else _but_ Dad would be that weird?"

"Seriously? That's the first chapter title?"

"Yeah."

"That is definitely Dad, then. Only he would –"

"Kori! Chrys! Cally! Alex! Come say hi to Grandpa Poseidon!"

I almost forgot the books in my rush. We hardly _ever_ got to talk to our godly grandparents. But at the last minute, I remembered the books. I took them and hid them in my room before hurrying downstairs. I had to know what kind of stuff my dad had done when he was younger.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Okay, so here's the next chapter. Sorry the author's note of the first one was so long. I'm going to try my best to make it have more of a story than the other "reading the Lightning Thief" ones. We'll see how well it works_**_** out.**_

"Hey," I hissed to the twins, later that night. They were sitting in the den, designing some kind of building for camp. I think a new library or something. Book geeks. "So Mom and Dad are up at the Big House, meeting with Chiron. Do you guys want to read those books?"

Cally grinned. "The books that you filched from Dad's underwear drawer?" she asked calmly.

I scowled. "I did not – okay, I filched them from Dad's underwear drawer. Let's get Alex and read them."

"Yes!"

We grabbed Alex, pulling him from whatever prank he was throwing together. He inherited Dad's silliness and Mom's wisdom – a deadly combination. The four of us sat in a circle in my room, even though Alex complained about it. He hated being in my room. I didn't know why. I cleared my throat, opening the first book.

**One: I accidentally vaporize my pre-algebra teacher.**

"This is going to be awesome!" Alex exclaimed, a manic grin on his face. "I love it when things blow up."

Cally rolled her green eyes. "You have a devious mind for a seven-year-old."

**Look, I didn't ask to be a half-blood.**

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: Close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this every happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages – if you feel something stirring inside – stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that it's only a matter of time before **_**they**_** sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

I rolled my eyes. "Oh my gods. Dad is _so_ dramatic. It's not that bad to be a half-blood."

"Um, yeah it is. That's why we stay within the camp's borders _year-round_, Kori. Or did you forget that?" Cally asked.

"Shut up, Cally. I still think Dad's being a little…_overly_ dramatic."

"Well, yeah," Chrys muttered. "I mean, it's _Dad_."

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"And my name is Alex Jackson."

"Alex!"

"What?"

"Shush. Or it's going to take us forever to finish. We have five books to get through."

He rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Kori."

"I can't. I'm reading."

"Oh, come _on_!"

I snickered. I loved irritating my siblings, especially Alex.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

Chrys snorted. "Dad's insane. And he does get himself into trouble a lot."

"But he's funny," I added defensively, even though he had a point. Dad tended to resort to some very…interesting methods when fighting monsters. Or trying to raise us kids.

"He's so _cheesy_," Cally snickered.

"Whatever. You guys wouldn't know a good sense of humor if it bit you in the Achilles Heel."

Alex frowned. "Um, Kori? None of us have –"

"It's an expression," I cut in. He may have been somewhat of an evil mastermind, but the kid was still only seven.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan – twenty-eight mental-case kids**

"Sounds perfect for you, Kori," Chrys muttered.

"Shut up."

**and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

**I know – it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.**

"It sounds awesome," Cally said. "I wonder why _we_ haven't gone."

"One, we don't go to Yancy. And two, it's dangerous for us to go out into the mortal world very often. And three, we already know it all," I pointed out. "I mean, we grew up with the kinds of stuff that they have on display there. What would be the point?"

She scowled at me. "Still, I think it'd be pretty cool."

"You are so much like Mom."

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

"Mr. Brunner?" Chrys repeated, frowning. "Isn't that what Chiron calls himself when he's around mortals?"

"I think so. Now shut up so I can read."

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.**

"You know, it really does."

"Alex!"

"Just saying!"

**You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

Cally giggled. "Sounds like Kori!"

"Hey!" I exclaimed, indignant. "I do _not_ fall asleep in class!" I was lying, of course. Big time. Dad and I were a lot alike. It was something that really frustrated my mom sometimes.

"If you say so."

"I don't, Callidora."

"Don't call me by my full name."

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to Saratoga Battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

"Did that have anything to do with monsters attacking him?" Cally questioned, trying not to laugh. "Or was he just being…well, himself?"

We looked at each other and said, "Himself."

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour at the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.**

Alex sighed, smiling. "Typical Dad."

**And the time before that…Well, you get the idea.**

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

I snorted. Yeah, right.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit -**

"Bobofit. What a stupid name."

"Well, yours is Chrysanthros. So who are you to talk?"

He blushed, glaring at his twin. They get along really well, _most_ of the time. Some days, they seemed to want to kill each other. "Shut up, Calli_dora_ the Ex–"

"Okay, stop," I interrupted. I knew if he finished that word, she would punch him. Or worse.

**the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Ew," Cally said, grimacing. "That is so gross. Peanut butter and ketchup?"

"Don't knock it till you try it," her twin said. "It's actually not bad."

She looked at him like he'd suddenly turned into a hydra. "You're disgusting."

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

We all laughed at that one. Grover and his enchiladas. It was a funny thing to see. I remembered one time when he knocked Dad over in his hurry to get some enchiladas.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing chunks of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"**I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter.**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"**That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"**You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

"So do I," I mumbled under my breath.

Cally lifted an eyebrow. "Kori, you know what Mom and Dad say. Violence is never the answer, unless –"

"You're dealing with nasty monsters. Yeah, I know. Hey, maybe this Nancy chick _is_ a monster!"

Chrys shook his head. "Doubt it, sis. Don't you think Grover would have done something about it?"

"True."

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a **_**stele**_** for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

"Poor Dad," Cally said. "He was actually trying to learn something."

"For once," Alex muttered.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Wow. That bad, huh?" Chrys said. "Dad wasn't kidding when he said 'mental-case students' earlier."

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and**

"Creepy." Alex shuddered.

**I knew I was going to get after school detention for a month.**

Chrys frowned. "Harsh."

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"No way…Did Dad really have _no_ idea who or what he was?" I demanded. "Seriously. He's a son of one of the Big Three! How could he not know for twelve years?"

"I want to know how he even survived that long." Cally frowned, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "We stay pretty safe because we don't go out much. Really, only to visit Grandma Sally and Grandpa Paul."

"Can you keep reading, please?" Alex asked. "I want to know what kind of monster Mrs. Dodds is. And why Grover hasn't done anything about her. Or Chiron, for that matter."

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you **_**shut up**_**?"**

I whooped. "Go Dad!"

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

Chrys laughed. "Of course it did."

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

"**Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a rush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"**Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because…"**

"**Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and –"**

"Titan!" my siblings and I chorused.

Chrys shook his head. "Honestly, Dad."

"**God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"**Titan," I corrected myself. "And…he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters –"**

"**Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"I'm with the girl." Cally fake-gagged. "That is so nasty."

Chrys lifted an eyebrow. "Um, you _do_ know how our own mother and grandmother were born, right?"

She shuddered. "Don't remind me. That doesn't make it any less gross."

"I think it's kind of cool."

"Of course you do, Kori. You're gross."

"– **and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"Well, it depends on what kind of job you're applying for. One of my friends –"

"We don't care, Kori."

"**And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"**Busted," Grover muttered.**

"**Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"**I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal, had been living and growing completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"That story seriously grosses me out every time I hear it."

"Should I reread it, then, Cally?"

"No, Kori!"

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew what was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go – intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"**You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

"**About the Titans?"**

"**About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

"**Oh."**

"**What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect**

"I'll bet Dad wasn't even really listening. Whenever the words 'vitally' and 'important' are mentioned, he tends to zone out."

I chuckled, agreeing with Chrys.

**you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

Alex laughed. "That would be so awesome!"

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No – he didn't expect me to be **_**as good**_**; he expected me to be **_**better**_**. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

Chrys, Cally, and Alex all snorted. I frowned at them. "How is that funny?"

"Uh, sis. How old is Chiron?" Chrys asked, snickering.

"Like thousands of years old. Why?"

"He probably _was_ at that girl's funeral."

Heat rose to my cheeks. "Shut up, Alex. You don't have to be a smart aleck."

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch. **

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes.**

"What? Did Grandpa Poseidon get the last cookie or something, making his brother mad?" Alex asked with a cackle. I had no idea why he thought that was funny. It really wasn't.

Outside, thunder rumbled.

Alex rolled his eyes. "Sorry, Great-uncle Zeus! I was just kidding!"

**I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from **_**that**_** school – the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"**Detention?" Grover asked.**

"**Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off sometimes. I mean – I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep, philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

We all busted up laughing. Typical Grover.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years **

"Holy Hades!" I exclaimed. "He went to _six_ schools in the same amount of time? So…he went to a new school every year?"

"No wonder he doesn't like talking about his education," Cally muttered.

**and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends – I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists – and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

"Oh no. This isn't going to end well," Chrys said.

I narrowed my eyes at the book. "I hope he punches her lights out, monster or no monster. And I don't want to hear any lectures about violence. This Nancy is starting to really tick me off."

"**Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

Chrys practically rolled on the floor with laughter. "Dad is such a doofus! Cheetos? Really?"

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

Alex chuckled. "Ha, a wave."

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt**

"Yes!" we cheered.

**in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

"No!" we moaned.

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see –"**

"– **the water –"**

"– **like it grabbed her –"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester.**

Cally groaned loudly. "This won't be pretty, guys. At all."

I had to agree with her. I had a feeling that Dad was about to get his butt whooped. Although, it was something that I was definitely interested in reading about, I had to admit. My dad was pretty amazing. He was the best swordsman that I knew. He was an awesome fighter. I'd never seen him lose to anyone - except maybe Mom.

"**Now, honey –"**

"**I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"**Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

"**Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. **_**I**_** pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me.**

"Why not?" Alex demanded. "Grover would do a lot for Dad. Just about anything."

**Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

"That's why."

"Don't be a smart aleck, Kori," Alex muttered.

"Calli_dora_ the Explorer," Chrys said randomly, earning himself a punch to the gut. I shook my head. He and Cally were geniuses – like Mom – but Chrys also inherited some of Dad's idiocy. He didn't seem to know when to shut up sometimes. For a smart guy, he could be pretty stupid.

"Don't you dare call me that, Chrysanthros."

"Hey, stop it. Both of you."

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

"**I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

"**But –"**

"**You–**_**wil**_**l–stay–here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

"**It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

"**Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "**_**Now**_**."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. **

**How'd she get there so fast?**

"Yep, definitely a monster."

Cally rolled her eyes. "Really? What gave it away, Kori?"

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"Why doesn't she just try to kill him already? Or eat him?" I asked.

"Kori! That's not the _only_ thing monsters are after!" Chrys exclaimed.

I shrugged. "Um, pretty much. Oh, come on. Unless they're working for somebody. Oh, duh. This one is probably working for somebody who wants Dad."

"Duh. Seaweed Brain the Second."

I smacked the back of Cally's head. "Shut up!"

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. **

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"Not good," Cally groaned.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would have been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it.**

"**You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

"Really not good."

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

"Really, really not good."

"Awesome."

"Alex!"

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll – I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

"**We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

"Really, really, _really_ not good."

"We got that, Cally, thanks," I snapped. "Shut up and let me read."

**I didn't know what she was talking about. **

**All I could think was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

I struggled not to laugh. I'd always wondered why Dad hadn't been more upset when he'd caught me doing the same thing last year, except I'd been selling my stash from Rachel's cave - when she wasn't there, of course. I guess Dad didn't want to sound like a hypocrite.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on **_**Tom Sawyer**_** from the Internet without ever reading the book and they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"Sounds familiar," Chrys muttered.

I glared at him until he mumbled a meek apology.

"**Well?" she demanded.**

"**Ma'am, I don't…"**

"**Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbeque coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

Cally gasped suddenly, sitting up straight. "Guys, doesn't this sound a lot like…well, a Kindly One?"

"Oh my gods! You're right!" Chrys frowned, looking at the book in my hands. "But why would one of them be there, trying to get Dad? And why would Grover and Chiron let that _thing_ anywhere Dad?"

"I don't know."

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"**What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword – Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"Yikes!" Cally exclaimed.

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hisss**_**!**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"Ha! He wishes," Alex mumbled.

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

**I said, "Who?"**

I frowned. "I'm with Dad on that one. Who is she talking about? Who the Hades is Mrs. Kerr?"

"The Mist, Kori."

"Oh."

"Duh."

"Shut up, Alex."

"**Our **_**teacher**_**. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

Alex shook his head, grinning. "Nah, Grover just can't lie to save his life."

"**Not funny, man," I said. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

"**Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He started at me blankly. "Who?"**

"**The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

I sighed. "Well, that's the end of the first chapter. I can't believe a Fury attacked Dad like that."

"He must have felt so crazy after that," Cally noted.

Chrys grinned. "Dad's always been crazy."

"True," I agreed. "So should we start the next chapter?"

"Yeah."

"Who wants to read?"

"I will."

The four of us jumped and looked toward the door. "Mom," I said nervously. She stood in the doorway, her arms folded. She didn't _look_ mad. But she could hide her emotions pretty well sometimes. I really hoped that she wouldn't ask where I'd found these books. Because then she'd wonder what I was doing in her room. And if she found out that I took my cell back, I was _so_ dead. "When did you get back?"

"Oh, just long enough ago to hear you kids reading about your father's experience with one of the Furies."

We were so busted. "Mom, look. Dad's never told us about all of the cool stuff he's done." Neither had she, but I felt it was safer to _not_ say that out loud. "And so we're really curious. Please don't make us stop reading them."

She arched an eyebrow. "And who said I was going to stop you? I haven't even seen these. I'm curious as to what actually goes on in that Seaweed Brain of his."

I grinned. Awesome. Our mom _wasn't_ going to kill us. That was a relief. And somewhat of a surprise. "Where is Dad?" I doubted he would be happy to find out that we'd been reading these. They seemed almost personal. But they why had he gotten them published at all?

"He's visiting Poseidon for a little while. Now, are you going to let me read or not?"

I handed her the book.


	3. Chapter 3

Mom cleared her throat.

**Two: Three old ladies knit the socks of death.**

She rolled her eyes. "Jeez, Percy," she muttered sarcastically. "Could you get any more ridiculous?"

"Mom, are you sure you want that question answered?" Cally asked.

She sighed. "Probably not."

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to by playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr – a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip – had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often, I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

****Chrys snorted. "Dad is psycho."

**It got so I almost believed them – Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something **_**had**_** happened at the museum.**

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would make me wake up in a cold sweat.**

Alex shook his head. "Poor Dad."

Mom smiled sadly. "It was a very difficult time for your father."

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

I started laughing. My dad was hilarious. "That's great. I _have_ to use that one of these days."

Mom arched an eyebrow at me. "Excuse me, young lady?"

I cursed silently. "I mean, um, we should always respect our teachers and should _never_ call them old sots." Then I added under my breath, "Even if it would be the funniest thing ever." Although, I did like _most_ of my teachers. Almost all of them were demigods. Or at least married to a demigod. So they understood the whole ADHD thing and that it totally wasn't my fault that I couldn't sit still in class.

Mom narrowed her eyes, glancing at the book in her hands. "Hmm, maybe you kids shouldn't be hearing this. I do not need your dad teaching you bad habits, even through a book."

"No!" we protested.

"Mom," Chrys said, "come on. I think we've already learned all of the bad habits from Dad that we can. I don't think this book will teach us more."

"Besides, we really want to know about all the cool stuff you guys did when you were kids," I added. "You _never_ talk about it."

She sighed again. "A lot of it is painful for us to talk about, sweetie. We suffered a lot. I didn't even know your father had written these."

"Wow," I mumbled. "There's actually something Mom doesn't know?" She glared at me, so I clamped my mouth shut.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

"Wait a minute," I interrupted with a frown. "I thought Grandpa Paul hates poker?"

"He does. It's…well, you'll see."

"But Dad doesn't think Grandpa is obnoxious."

Mom laughed. "Be patient, kids. If you stop talking for a few minutes, I might be able to get to that part of the book."

**And yet…there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange.**

**I'd miss Latin class, too – Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Maybe it had something to do with the Fury attacking him?" Alex muttered, a little sarcastically.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the **_**Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology**_** across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards.**

Sighing, Mom rolled her eyes. "Ridiculous."

**There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will only accept the best from you, Percy Jackson.**_

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Wow," Cally said sadly. "Dad really hated not being good in school, didn't he?"

Mom nodded. "It was horrible for him. His ADHD and dyslexia are worse than most other demigods, because Poseidon is one of the Big Three. He's very smart, your father. He just has a hard time in a normal school setting. He does act on impulse, a lot, without actually thinking things through, which doesn't help. But he can come up with some very brilliant plans in a pinch."

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said, "…worried about Percy, sir." **

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but **

"Since when?" I exclaimed. Just last week, he had been eavesdropping on my phone conversation with my new boyfriend, Rob Huntsman. He didn't even apologize about it.

Mom looked at me, annoyed. "Quiet, Korinna."

**I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you, to an adult.**

**I inched closer.**

"…**alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the **_**school**_**! Now that we know for sure, and **_**they**_** know too –"**

"**We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"**But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline –"**

"**Will have to be reached without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

"**Sir, he **_**saw**_** her…"**

"**His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

"**Sir, I…I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

"**You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall –"**

"Why didn't _Chiron_ recognize Mrs. Dodds as a Fury?" Chrys asked. "I guess I can understand Grover being tricked. He was pretty young. But Chiron?"

"I don't know, Chrys," Mom said with a small frown. "I never did find that out."

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

I snorted. "Um, yeah. That would have been quite a shock. I would have dropped the book, too."

**Mr. Brunner went silent. My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow **_**clop-clop-clop**_**, like a muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

"Well, can you really blame him?" Chrys asked. "He didn't know anything about monsters and stuff, and he'd already been attacked by a Fury. I'd be nervous, too."

**Somewhere in the hall, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"**Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn…"**

"**Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow.**

"**Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back to the dorm.**

**Grover was on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

"**Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

"**You look awful."**

"Oh, that's a nice thing to say to one of your best friends," I muttered sarcastically.

Mom smiled at me. "I doubt Grover meant it in a rude way. He was just trying to find out what was going on with your father."

**He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

"**Just…tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing. **

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

Mom rolled her gray eyes. "He's always in some kind of danger," she grumbled.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

"**Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's…it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear.**

"Chiron said that while there were still other kids in the room?" Cally demanded. "What was he thinking?"

"I don't think he really was," I said.

"Kids, Chiron was trying to make your dad be not so discouraged by the idea of being expelled again."

"Well, I don't think he chose the best way to do that."

**Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"Yep, definitely didn't choose the best way to cheer Dad up."

"Kori, hush."

"Yes, Mom."

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

"**I mean…" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

Alex laughed. "Dad's gonna cry!"

Mom glared at him, and he immediately hunched his shoulders and stopped laughing. Mom's glares were terrifying. "Wouldn't you feel the same way if that was you, Alexander Jackson?"

He mumbled something that sounded vaguely like an agreement.

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"Yeah, I'd probably feel like crying, too," Chrys admitted.

"**Right," I said, trembling.**

"**No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say…you're not normal, Percy. That's**

Chrys winced. "Ouch. Chiron should not try to make an ignorant demigod feel better about not being normal. He's not very good at it."

**nothing to be –"**

"**Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

"**Percy –"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were **_**rich**_** juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

"**Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

Chrys and I laughed loudly. "Jeez, Dad," I chortled. "Give Grover a heart attack, why don't you?"

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha– what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

"**Oh…not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy…I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers…"**

"Whoa, seriously," I muttered. "Grover is _really_ bad at lying."

Mom chuckled. "He really is."

"**Grover –"**

"**And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds and –"**

"**Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card.**

Alex frowned. "Grover has a business card? That's so weird."

"**Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

"**What Half-"**

"**Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um…summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"Wait," Cally said. "If everybody at Yancy is rich, I'm assuming the tuition is really expensive. How did Grandma Sally afford it?"

Mom frowned, as though the idea had never even occurred to her. That was new. "I don't know. I'll have to ask Sally about that."

"What do you need to ask my mom?" Dad's voice called out.

I yelped. Mom quickly hid the book under her legs, and smiled up at Dad as he walked into the room. He had his green eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Oh, I just need to get the recipe for that blueberry pie she made at Christmas. It was amazing. I was thinking I would make it for that dinner we have with my dad next month," Mom lied smoothly. Wow. She was way too good at that.

Dad folded his arms. "Okay, I may not be a child of Athena, but I am _not_ a complete idiot. Why are all of the kids in Kori's room, when I know for a fact that Alex would rather fight a gorgon than be in here?"

I sighed. "We're busted."

"Annabeth, what's going on?"

"Don't worry about it, Percy."

"Now I'm even _more_ worried –" he broke off with a yelp. He snatched the book from under Mom, glaring at us kids. "Which one of you brats went through my underwear drawer?"

Mom grimaced. "You hid it in your _underwear_ drawer? That's disgusting, Percy Jackson!"

"They're clean!" he defended. "And I really don't see what the big deal is. You shouldn't have any problem going through my underwear drawer. After all, you've seen –"

"Perseus!"

"Sorry." He spun around suddenly to face me, holding out his other hand. "Korinna Jackson. Cell phone. Now." Sighing, I pulled out the phone and gave it to him. Mom gave me a look that told me we were going to be having a little chat later. I was so dead. If she wasn't so interested in these books of Dad's, she probably would have skinned me right then and there. "Stay out of my underwear drawer." Then he started to walk away, taking the book with him.

"Dad –"

"Percy," Mom began, grabbing his arm as she stood up. "Where do you think you're going with that book?"

He shook his head. "Oh, no way. I am _not_ letting you guys read this. That is so _not_ going to happen."

She smiled sweetly at him. "If you don't hand it to me right now, you'll be sleeping on the couch for the next month."

Dad gulped, hesitating. Chrys and I covered our mouths, trying not to laugh, while Cally grimaced and looked a little green. Alex frowned. "I don't get it."

"And if you _do_ give it to me…" she whispered the rest into his ear.

Dad gave her the book without anymore hesitation. Mom sat back down, pulling him with her. "Seaweed Brain," she mumbled under her breath. She started reading again.

"**Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or…or if you need me."**

"**Why would I need you?"**

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I – I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

"I'd thought he was crazy," Dad admitted. "You should have seen Grover back then. He's like an entirely different goat now."

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended **_**me**_**.**

"**Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. **

"Nasty," Cally said with a shudder.

**The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

"You know, I'm starting to think that the bus didn't really break down," Dad mused. "At least, not on its own. They wanted me to see them."

Mom rolled her eyes. "Of course they did, Seaweed Brain."

"Wait, who?" Chrys demanded. "What happens?"

"Let's find out."

**We were on a stretch of country road – no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimming with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandanas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"That's creepy," Chrys said.

"What kind of monsters are they?" Alex asked excitedly. "Are they going to attack you, Dad?"

Dad frowned at him. "Why does that idea excite you so much?"

Alex just shrugged.

"I have a bad feeling about those ladies," Cally whispered.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

"**Grover?" I said. "Hey, man –"**

"**Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

"**Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Dad!" Chrys and Cally said, while I just laughed. What? I thought it was funny.

"What?" Dad asked. "That was funny."

Mom shook her head. "Percy, it was lame."

"**Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors – gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

Cally grimaced. "No wonder. Those are the Fates, aren't they, Dad?"

Dad didn't answer.

"**We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

"**What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"**Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that **_**snip**_** across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for – Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"Dad," Cally began, her voice shaking. "Are they the Fates? Were they snipping _your_ yarn? How are you still alive, then?"

Dad sighed. "It's…complicated, Cals."

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

"**Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hand. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

Cally whimpered, scooting closer to Dad. She took his hand. If I wasn't so worried myself, I would have made fun of her for being such a baby.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

"**Grover?"**

"**Yeah?"**

"**What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

"**You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like…Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit stands ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds.**

I snorted. "They sure are."

Mom sent me a glare. "Kori, hush."

**He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

"**The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost – older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

"**Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

"Wow," Dad muttered. "I really didn't know _anything_ back then."

"You still don't," Mom mumbled.

"That is not true, Annabeth."

"**This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

I frowned. "What last time?" I asked.

Of course, I was ignored.

"**What last time?"**

Chrys stared at me. "That was kind of creepy. You're way too much like Dad."

"**Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth grade."**

"**Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

"**Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

"**Is this a superstition or something?" I asked. **

**No answer.**

"**Grover – that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"He probably was," Chrys commented.

Cally gave Dad a tight hug. "I love you, Daddy," she said, reverting to her childhood name for Dad.

I narrowed my eyes at my father. "You didn't let Grover walk you home, did you?"

"Just…read the next chapter," he said, pushing the book toward me.

I shook my head. "I was the first one to read. Why don't you?"

He glanced at the title and seemed to sigh in relief. "All right, but Chrys is reading after me."

"Why?"

"Because I said so."


	4. Chapter 4

**_Lucky you, you get two chapters in one day! That probably won't happen often, I'm sorry. Like I said before, I've got college classes and I work, so I don't have a lot of spare time anymore. I'll try, though._  
**

**Three: Grover unexpectedly loses his pants.**

I snorted in laughter. "This should be funny."

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"I knew it!"

"Korinna!"

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering, "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

Mom gave Dad a look. "He was a lot more freaked out than you were. He was terrified that things would be as bad as before."

"I know that _now_. I didn't then."

"What happened before?" Chrys and I demanded. As usual, we were ignored.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

"**East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

My siblings and I exchanged looks, but none of us said anything. As far as I had ever been able to tell, Grandma Sally was happy. Sure, she didn't have a huge amount of money or anything, but she had enough. I knew she was happy with Grandpa Paul.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her.**

"I didn't know that," Cally said, surprised.

**She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, and no diploma.**

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic and on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

Chrys chuckled. "I guess that's one way of putting it."

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano,**

"Who?" everybody except Mom and Dad hollered.

Dad sighed. "Your grandma was married before she married Paul."

"What happened to Gabe, then?" Alex asked.

Dad got an evil look on his face. "He got what he deserved."

"So…" I began, "I'm guessing he was a jerk?"

"World-class."

**who was nice about the first thirty seconds we knew him, then he showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe.**

I started laughing. "How old is 'young,' Dad?"

"Oh, I think I was about six when I gave him that nickname, about Alex's age. I was four when my mom married him."

**I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

Cally grimaced, looking a little green. "That's so gross. Did he really smell that bad?"

"Yes."

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along…Well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

"**Where's my mom?"**

"**Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

**That was it. No **_**Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**_

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

"Why would Grandma marry this guy?" I demanded. "Seriously. What did she see in him?"

Mom and Dad exchanged a look. "It's…complicated, Kori," Mom said. "She did have a very good reason for it."

Dad's fists clenched tightly. "She shouldn't have had to suffer Smelly Gabe just so she could try to keep –"

"Percy," Mom interrupted, trying to placate him. "Let's just read, all right?"

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"**I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

Mom rolled her eyes. "Percy, you do know that –"

"Yes, Annabeth. I know. _Now._"

"**You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

**Eddie, the super of our apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"**Am I **_**right**_**?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

"Ew," Cally moaned. Alex just laughed.

"**Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"**Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic – how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone – something – was looking for me right now, maybe even pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

Mom laughed. "You really are a Mama's Boy."

Dad blushed, but didn't respond. He was the biggest Mama's Boy I'd ever known. It was kind of sweet, it a totally dorky way.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"And Gabe definitely deserved it. Percy, your mother is a saint," Mom said. She yelled at Dad a lot. They always fought, but it wasn't usually serious. And they always made-up, by which I mean they made-_out_.

"I know. I still don't know how she did it."

"**Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

Dad blushed again. "Nobody say anything," he warned.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

Mom shook her head. "Men and their macho image."

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally – how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not some jerk like Gabe.**

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum…**

Dad shuddered. "Mrs. Dodds. I really hated her, even before she turned into a bloodthirsty monster."

"**What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

"**No, Mom."**

I snorted. "Like you would admit to it."

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would be stupid.**

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

"**I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

Mom smiled dreamily. "Do you remember our first wedding anniversary? We spent an entire week there. It wasn't Paris, but…"

"Nothing could be better than our honeymoon. Paris was amazing. Both times."

"Ew, Dad," Cally complained.

I frowned. "Wait, you've been to Paris twice? When was the other time?"

"Our one-month anniversary, while we were still dating," Mom said with a smile. She mock-glared at Dad. "Your father had forgotten, even though he had promised to take me out to a nice dinner. He was lucky enough to get a favor from Hermes, who set up a special evening for us in Paris."

"**Three nights – same cabin."**

"**When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

"**I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

"**I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"**Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip…it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"What a jerk!" I exclaimed. "A clothes budget? He's worried about money enough to force Grandma to have a _clothes budget_, yet he spends his days gambling? Well, he can take his clothes budget, and shove it –"

"Korinna Colette Jackson," mom practically growled. "Do not finish that sentence."

Alex laughed. "Do it, Kori. I dare you."

"I'm not stupid."

He snorted. "You could have fooled me."

"Why, you –" I reached out to smack him.

Mom gripped my hand. "Knock it off, both of you."

"**Yes, honey," my mother said.**

"**And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

"**We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with with seven-layer dip…and maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"Perseus!"

"What, Annabeth? The guy would have deserved it!"

"You are not teaching our children very good habits."

"Oh, come on. I was twelve!" She glared at him. He sighed, looking at us kids. "All right, all right. Kids, don't do what I did when I was your age."

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

"**I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

Alex frowned. "How could he not hear the sarcasm? That statement was laced with it."

"He's an idiot," Dad muttered.

"**Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

"**Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about…whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes – the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride – as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later, we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking – and more importantly, his '78 Camaro – for the weekend.**

"**Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

Chrys frowned. "What? Did he really think Dad was going to drive?"

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't' matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and **

Mom shuddered. "The spiders are the worst."

"Hey, I killed them all for you, didn't I? I do every time."

**most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

**I loved the place.**

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"Yeah," Chrys said. "You always told us it was just a tradition that Grandma started."

Mom chuckled. "Well, your father was just about to read that part, if you would stop interrupting him."

**See, Gabe once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This – along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano – was **

I laughed. "She'd have to crazy to want to go by that name."

**proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk – my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same thing she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

"**He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

Mom scooted closer to him, taking his hand and giving him a sickeningly mushy smile. "She could say it because you have such a good heart. You do the right thing, Percy. You always have."

I groaned. "Please, don't get all mushy. Wait, Dad, are these books full of kissing all the time? I really don't have any problem with you guys kissing, but I think I'd rather _not_ read about you and Mom making out all the time. Gross."

Dad scowled. "No. They are not full of kissing."

"Much to his chagrin," Mom muttered, a little smirk on her face.

"**How old was I?" I asked. "I mean…when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

"**But…he knew me as a baby."**

"**No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember…something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. my mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me…**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

"You know he wouldn't have been able to stay."

Dad sighed, kissing Mom's cheek. "I know. I'm not _really_ angry at him anymore. I understand, even if it is annoying."

"**Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

"**I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think…I think we'll have to do something."**

"**Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I – I have to. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said – that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

"**Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"You're really not, Dad."

"Thank you, Alexander. That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

"**You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

"**Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me – all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I tried to tell them that under his broad-rimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

Cally gulped. "Good Cyclops or bad?"

"Probably good. I think he might have been sent by my father to check up on me."

**Before that – a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

Mom smacked the back of his head. "Your head really is full of seaweed."

"**I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me it was a mistake. But there's only other option, Percy – the place your father wanted to send you. And I just…I just can't stand to do it."**

"**My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

"**Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"Camp Half-Blood," my siblings and I chorused.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad – who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born – talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"**I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I – I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

"**For good? But if it's only a summer camp…"**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

Alex's eyes lit up. "Grandpa Poseidon and Great-Uncle Zeus?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure."

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagle's wings. As they fought, the ground rumble, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

"And that had to be Great-Uncle Hades."

"Yeah. Actually," Dad said, frowning, "I don't know. It could have been someone else." He looked at Mom, and they seemed to have some kind of silent conversation. They did that a lot. It was annoying.

"Who?" I asked him.

"You'll see," he responded grimly.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, **_**No!**_

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down hourses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke she sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten.**

Alex laughed. "I don't think the _ocean_ itself had any control over that."

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice – someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't…he wasn't exactly Grover.**

I had to chuckle. "Let me guess: he was missing his pants?"

Chrys rolled his eyes. "Gee, Kor, I wonder what gave it away. Could it have been the chapter title?"

"Shut up."

"**Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror – not scared of Grover, but why he'd come.**

"**Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

"_**O Zeu kai alloi theoi**_**!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you **_**tell**_** her?"**

"Dad," Cally said slowly. "What kind of monster was after you?"

He laughed. "Pretty much every monster ever created, sweetie. But you'll know which one it is when it's described. Trust me."

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on – and where his legs should be…where his legs should be…**

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "**_**Percy**_**. Tell me **_**now**_**!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. **_**Go**_**!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro – but he wasn't running exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked. **

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"That's the end of the entry. Here, Chrys."

Chrys hesitated before taking the book from Dad. "Why do you want me to read this next chapter?" he asked warily.

Mom squeezed Dad's hand. "This next part, if it's what I think it is, is very difficult for your father."

Dad snorted. "It's what you think it is."

"Great," Chrys muttered. "So I get to read it."

_**If you're wondering about the one-month anniversary in Paris, read Rick Riordan's Demigod Diaries. It has the short story in there. It was kind of cute.** _


	5. IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE!

**_Important author's note! I am extremely sorry for this, but it's been pointed out to me that this kind of story is not allowed on the website (the "reading" the book kind). I don't want to be writing anything that the website doesn't want up, so I'm going to take this story down. I'll do it sometime within this week, but I wanted to let you all know. I am extremely sorry. I hate that I won't be able to finish it for you, but I should have remembered that it was written in the rules that I agreed to. If you are still interested in these characters (Kori, Chrys, Cally, and Alex), I will write another fanfiction with them. I've been thinking about it, and I'll do it if enough people want me to. Again, I'm sorry. I'd rather take it down now. _**


End file.
